UEFIStandards

UEFIStandards refer to the family of specifications known as the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), developed and maintained by the UEFI Forum. They define a modern, modular firmware interface between platform hardware and operating systems, offering a flexible alternative to the traditional BIOS. The standards cover system initialization, boot processes, and runtime services, enabling features such as driver modularity, secure boot, and firmware updating.

The UEFI Forum is the standards organization responsible for evolving the specifications. It comprises hardware and software vendors and provides the official UEFI specification, conformance tests, and reference implementations. The architecture is designed to be architecture-neutral and platform-agnostic, with formalized layers and well-defined protocols that can be implemented across different processors and platforms.

Core concepts include a layered firmware architecture that initializes hardware, provides boot and runtime services, and exposes a set of standardized protocols. Key phases and components include Platform Initialization, the Driver Execution Environment, boot management, and runtime services that persist while the operating system runs. Protocols such as the Graphics Output Protocol, Simple File System Protocol, and Human Interface Infrastructure enable communication between firmware and OS components, while the EFI System Partition on storage devices hosts bootloaders and other required files.

Notable features associated with the standards are Secure Boot, Capsule updates for firmware, and a robust driver and interface ecosystem. Secure Boot uses cryptographic signatures to verify bootloaders and option ROMs, Capsule updates allow firmware updates through the OS or network, and a modular driver model supports extensibility. UEFIStandards have achieved broad adoption across computing platforms, with operating systems and hardware vendors providing substantial support for UEFI-based booting and management.